Imperial Palace,
Little Kitten was driving a golf cart, carrying Sanguinius through the Imperial Palace. This palace, which covers an area the size of the entire Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, was truly massive. Even after all this time, Sanguinius hadn't explored all of it.
Sanguinius had, however, visited the Shadow Dungeons beneath the Imperial Palace. Rather than dungeons, they were more like containment cells, housing all sorts of strange things, including some "old friends."
Soon, Sanguinius looked at the map and noticed a room they passed that wasn't even marked on it... "Little Kitten, stop the car. Back up."
Hearing this, Little Kitten braked, put the car in reverse, and backed up to the entrance of the room Sanguinius had mentioned. Sanguinius looked at the unremarkable door and asked:
"Little Kitten, what room is this? Why isn't it on the map?"
Little Kitten looked troubled and could only shrug: "My Lord, I'm sorry, I cannot say."
Sanguinius glanced back at Little Kitten, seeing her constipated expression, and jumped out of the car, pushing open the door... "Father? Father? Wake up..."
The Emperor slowly opened his eyes. At this moment, a handsome, kind-faced bald man was looking at him, and memories flooded into his mind in an instant... "Horus? Didn't you... weren't you killed by me?"
Horus, however, smiled, extended his hand, and helped the Emperor up from the throne:
"Father, what are you talking about? Everyone is waiting for you."
As he was helped up from the throne by Horus, everyone was in the Throne Room. In the center of the hall was the table made by Guilliman, which "could accommodate the whole family." Guilliman and Malcador were playing Xiangqi on a chessboard.
Rogal Dorn and Perturabo were together, holding data-slates, checking and modifying the construction blueprints for the Sol System's ringworlds and ring-universes.
Lorgar and Magnus were sitting quietly on the sofa, reading.
Russ and Lion were having a drinking contest under the gaze of their "dog-boys" and "cat-boys."
Sanguinius was with Angron, making fruit platters in the fruit section. Krax and Konrad Curze were discussing revisions to the Imperial Codex.
Vulkan and Chagatai were roasting whole lambs for everyone. Fulgrim and Ferrus were exchanging gifts.
Mortarion was promoting special cigarettes from his homeworld to the crowd, while the Alpha and Omega brothers were preparing the tableware for the banquet.
At this moment, two women with two children walked up to the Emperor. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't see the children's faces, only the Arabic numeral '2' and the Chinese character 'eleven' written on their clothes, respectively.
Eldar: "Are you awake? The children have been waiting for you for a long time. Come to the table quickly."
Lady Astartes: "The food is getting cold. Today they specifically arranged for the best chefs from their Legions."
The Emperor tremblingly walked to the two children. His hands caressed their faces, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't see them clearly... "The Second Son... The Eleventh Brother... You're back..."
Seeing their father like this, the two children smiled at each other: "Father, what are you talking about? Haven't we always been here?"
...Throne Room,
On the Golden Throne, tears flowed from the eye sockets of the gigantic Emperor's skeleton... The red speaker kept blinking, speaking "dream words"... "The Second Son... The Eleventh Brother... My children..."
Russ and Khan, who were processing documents at a nearby desk, heard this. Russ's writing hand froze. When Russ heard the name "The Eleventh Brother," his body reacted instinctively, and he unconsciously snapped the pen in his hand.
Chagatai looked up at Russ. He rarely saw that expression called "sadness" on Russ's face. But Khan continued to work on Excel spreadsheets using his mother's computer.
Chagatai knew that the death of The Eleventh Brother was, in fact, attributed to Russ, and since then, Russ had never truly dealt a killing blow to a brother again.
Even when Horus "falsely transmitted an edict" for him to go to Prospero to kill Magnus, Russ stayed in orbit for several days, constantly persuading Magnus, hoping to bring Magnus back to Terra to meet their father.
However, Little Magnus was completely withdrawn at that time. No matter how Russ called him, Little Magnus wouldn't come out, so they had no choice but to fight. And on the vengeful spirit, Russ, holding the Spear of Dionysus, had the opportunity to assassinate Horus, but Russ's momentary soft-heartedness prevented him from doing it.
Russ had said many times: "He doesn't want to shed the blood of any more brothers."
...Imperial Palace, "The Unremembered Room"
Sanguinius looked at everything in the room, as well as the battle banners of the two Space Marine Chapters hanging in the center of the room, and the power armour and iconic weapons of the two Space Marine Chapters around them.
(Author: Here, the two vanished Space Marine Chapters, the Second and The Eleventh Brother, have not had all their official data disclosed. Based on fragments from official novels, I have privately set them up. The 20 Legions reflect various human civilizations, but lack representation for Eastern and Arabic cultures. Therefore, I have privately set up the Primarchs and their Legions based on these two.)
A broken Arabian Damascus scimitar, its blade inlaid with gems and carved with stars and a crescent moon.
A complete horizontal dao, its blade engraved with Xiu Chun patterns, and its hilt carved with a coiled dragon.
At this moment, Little Kitten stood at the doorway, head bowed, not looking at anything inside the room, while Sanguinius asked curiously:
"Can you tell me what happened to the Second and Eleventh Legions?"
Little Kitten kept her head down, not looking at anything inside, because everyone who knew about the two lost Legions was unwilling to speak of them, or even voluntarily underwent memory erasure.
"My Lord, I do not know... Perhaps I once knew, but now I have forgotten."
Sanguinius then began to tell a story, one that Li Feng had once told him... "I heard Li Feng say that one day, Rogal Dorn, the Primarch of the Imperial Fists and the builder of the Imperial Palace, discovered this room that had never been in his memory. He then pushed open the door and walked in, despite others' attempts to stop him. Afterwards, he retreated from the room and demanded to have his memory erased, because he feared it would shake his loyalty to the Imperium."
Little Kitten remained silent, but Sanguinius continued:
"Both Legions fell during the Xenos Race Wars. The war with the Xenos Race was fought three times, and even the Emperor had to breach the Labyrinth of Perpetual Night, using the power of the Void Dragon to achieve victory. Li Feng called it the Imperium's 'Punic Wars.'"
"My Lord, I only know that the Xenos Race are a very cruel, cunning, and powerful Xenos Race, and the most dangerous war the Imperium faced during the Great Crusade."
Sanguinius nodded, picked up a manual from one of the tables, and began to read it. The manual was titled "Field Manual for Facing The K'tahn Xenos."
"I know, the Great Crusade era and now are incomparable. You Custodes are used as Space Marine, Titan Legion are used as dreadnoughts, Space Marine are used as Astra Militarum, and Astra Militarum are used as PDF..."
But Sanguinius noticed something amiss while reading the manual. He then walked over to Little Kitten with the manual and pointed to a passage, saying:
"The Xenos Race Wars were before the investiture of the Warmaster on Ullanor, right?"
"Yes, My Lord."
"Then why does a manual from the Xenos Race Wars say 'For the Warmaster'? Olpetson was still farming at that time, wasn't he?"
(There's an image in the section comments, officially released by GW, showing 'For the Warmaster' written before Horus's investiture as Warmaster on Ullanor.)
Little Kitten lowered her head, silent, because these things were beyond her jurisdiction. She might have known in the past, but now she could only remain silent.
Sanguinius turned his head to look at the two displayed battle banners and weapons in the room... "It seems the previous Warmaster is between the two of you... Little Kitten! Take me to the Shadow Dungeons! I believe the souls of those two children are still in the dungeons! I want to find out what exactly happened!"
Little Kitten immediately knelt on the ground, pleading: "My Lord, absolutely not! We cannot investigate everything! What if we really find something out? What then? We'd best inform the Emperor first..."
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